If opposing sides in the Crescent City Connection toll debate agree on anything it is that the nation's fifth-busiest bridge requires maintenance, policing and traffic control. But just who pays is where they quickly diverge.

One month before residents in Orleans, Jefferson and Plaquemines parishes return to the polls to vote again on whether the tolls should be allowed on the bridge for 20 years, the future of the bridge was debated at another emotional forum Thursday night in Algiers. Sponsored by the Alliance for Citizen Engagement, the meeting was to serve as an educational session for voters.

But it soon turned into another spirited albeit controlled free-for-all, where most of the 60 people in the audience were against paying to cross the river.

Mike Teachworth, founder of Stop the Tolls, who successfully sued to force the May 4 re-vote on the issue, said opponents share the same concerns as supporters. But ultimately the issue is about "our fair share'' as a region and forcing the state to take care of the bridge as it does the 10 others, he said.

"We're West Bank citizens. We depend on the bridge,'' Teachworth said. "This whole issue about the tolls is about getting our fair share from Baton Rouge. We pay a tax that the 10 other bridges in Louisiana that cross the Mississippi River do not pay. We've paid it for 24 years. They've taken $500 million from us.''

D'Juan Hernandez, president of the Algiers Economic Development Foundation, which supported the tolls, conceded there was anti-toll sentiment among its members in deciding last fall to support the referendum. Yet the regionwide push by business groups in favor of the measure centered around accountability if the tolls continued and ensuring the money was directed to specific services, he said.

The tolls generated nearly $22 million annually before they were suspended in March after results of the November referendum approving the toll extension were thrown out.

"The 13-mile corridor is critical to the economic development of this community,'' Hernandez said. "We still would like to focus on what happens now with or without tolls. How do we ensure the bridge is safe, its maintenance, will we be able to have unimpeded access. ''

Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser, who was not a panelist, asked Hernandez to ask the AEDF to reconsider its stance. Nungesser said the Plaquemines Association of Business and Industry had changed its position against the issue.

Aaron Jackson of Alliance for Citizen Engagement, left, D'Juan Hernandez, president of the Algiers Economic Development Foundation and Mike Teachworth of Stop the Tolls look on as Maj. Carl Saizan of the State Police discuss traffic on the Crescent City Connection.Andrea Shaw NOLA.com|The Times-Picayune

"The people have spoken. They are overwhelmingly against it,'' he said.

Traffic played a key part in Thursday night's discussion. Audience members asked Maj. Carl Saizan of the State Police about its role in mitigating traffic. When the CCC police were merged into the Department of Public Safety in January, 19 officers and two dispatchers made the move, he said. Authorities also collapsed the area of responsibility with DPS officers managing the bridge and ground level traffic, State Police handling the unincorporated areas of the West Bank Expressway and New Orleans police managing the Pontchartrain Expressway.

"We will re-evaluate in six months and make adjustments,'' Saizan said. "We want to be held accountable to the citizens of this area.''